


Chocolates And Courage

by Mary308



Series: Just A Normal Inazuma Valentine's. [2]
Category: Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin, Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin
Genre: Again, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Ares Trio Is Best Trio, Inamori Pining, M/M, Multi, Trash But Hope You Like, Valentine's Day, crazy fangirls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 10:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17785799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary308/pseuds/Mary308
Summary: It's the big day, Asuto's all ready to give his sweets to the two people he likes the most, but will it go as smoothly as it seems?A direct continuation of An Idea And Lots Of Trouble.





	Chocolates And Courage

**Author's Note:**

> This is part two! I tried my best to make it fluffy but I don't know how the final result is??? Hope you like it tho.   
> They are aged up, just like in the other one. Not much to say... Just that I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written lol.  
> Just for the guilty pleasure of my favorite trio being together lmao.

It was kind of hard to wake up that morning as he had gone to sleep later than normal. His eyelids felt heavy and the warm bed seemed so inviting, but Asuto knew he had something to do that day, so he had to get up. 

With drowsy movements he started his morning routine. After a refreshing shower and getting dressed for the day, he walked down the hallways to eat breakfast. He woke up later than normal, so would everyone be there when he arrived? 

He was already halfway through his breakfast when Goujin, who was sitting across him, stood up. This normally wouldn’t have affected him, but the thing was that with no one in front of him, Nosaka and Haizaki, who were sitting together, which was not really surprising; could see him clearly. 

“Oh no.” He thought to himself, being reminded of that uncomfortable conversation he’d cut off the previous night by practically running away.

Asuto tried to avert his gaze, but Haizaki mouthed something to him.  
“Don’t think we… about yesterday”? He mumbled quietly, not being able to catch some words. He couldn’t read lips perfectly, okay?

Luckily he was able to fill in the gaps with his thoughts.   
“So they haven’t forgot either huh…” Asuto let out a huff and looked off to the side in mock anger, not missing the way Haizaki gasped or Nosaka chuckled. Of course he wasn’t going to give them the pleasure of more details! They had terrified him! 

Luckily, Goujin came back after that and he could continue eating normally.

After breakfast, he decided to go to his room first and then he’d head over to Ms. Kazeaki’s to pick up the chocolates he had left there yesterday. He just hoped that he had enough courage at the end of the day to actually give them. After all, those two were really popular, right?

After bidding his friends goodbye, he went to his room, they were heading out somewhere, apparently. 

Just as he was about to enter his room, he could swear he saw Haizaki and Nosaka on the corner, but when he turned to look at it, no one was there. 

“Must have been my imagination then.” He spoke aloud.

After grabbing his cellphone and checking his social media, which was full of valentine’s ads, mind you, he got out a backpack where he would put the chocolate boxes, with all his other things of course.

When he was about to walk to the big doors so he could leave, he saw Nosaka and Haizaki standing beside one of them.   
“Who could they be waiting for? There’s almost no one left here.” Of course everyone was enjoying another day off, even if the reason was… strange. Just like every other thing related to their coach of course.

But he didn’t really want to meet those two now, no more questioning, thank you very much. So he did the only thing he could think of at that moment, he went outside through the back doors. 

But of course it couldn’t all go well for him, because as soon as he was about to cross the road, he heard a voice calling out.  
“Hey, Inamori! Where are you going?” And it was Nosaka. He turned to look at him hoping to hide the ‘deer in headlights’ look, but luckily something distracted him quickly. Haizaki wasn’t with the redhead.

“Just… going out for a walk, why?” There was an attempt at trying to act normal.

“Oh, no reason. Just that you were looking a lil’ bit tense, are you okay?” He asked, between worried and amused.  
“I’m fine, thank you” Asuto smiled.  
“Ah, could I come with you? And Haizaki’s probably coming too.” Nosaka more like demanded than asked, with a sharp smile that gave the feeling that he knew more than he let on.  
Asuto froze for a moment before offering a shaky smile and a nod. He couldn’t exactly say no when the other would question him until he spilled. 

“Where is he though? I mean, since you two are most of the time toget-” He interrupted himself, had he really just done that? How embarrassing… His cheeks were burning.

“Ah, he just said that he had to pick something up real fast, don’t know what it was though.” Although Nosaka paid no mind to the last part of his sentence, his smile gained an edge and there was a new glint to his eyes. 

“Oh, I can’t believe I almost called him out like that!” Asuto was despairing internally, but he still held a now awkward smile on his face.

“Huh, what are you two idiots just standing there for?” The person in question turned up.

“For your information, us idiots,” Nosaka started with heavy sarcasm and air quotes on the ‘idiots’, “were waiting for you, Mr. ‘Oh, I forgot something!’.” How come he could say that with a straight face?

“What did you just say!?” And from there a one-sided discussion started. He sighed and smiled at the common sight before an idea struck him.

Now that they were distracted he could finally leave! As the road was empty, he could very well just cross and sprint until the other two wouldn’t be able to either see or catch up to him.

But when he was about to run off, a hand grabbed his shoulder, gripping tightly.   
“Oh, but where are you going to, Inamori? I thought we were all going to take a walk in the park!” Their tone was friendly, the friendliest he had ever heard, but there was an undertone of chilliness and danger that made him shiver.

He definitely didn’t want to turn his head. He didn’t.

“Haha… yeah. I was just…” Asuto trailed off.

“Just what? You weren’t planning to leave us, were you? You definitely wouldn’t do that, right? Right, Inamori?” For some reason, the way the other called his name was the most terrifying thing he had ever heard.

The blackette finally turned to look at who had grabbed his shoulder and effectively saw Nosaka with the coldest smile on his face and eyes that just screamed deadly all around. 

How in the world had he forgotten how scary the other could be!? And that Haizaki seemed to be enjoying this, he was smirking! How dare he!?

“No, no! I wasn’t going to. I just wanted to have a head start, that’s all! Since you two were talking…” As he trailed off, he started to awkwardly laugh and sweated bullets.

“I see! But that wouldn’t be very nice, leaving us alone. We want to go together and talk with each other, right Haizaki?” His smile could still freeze hell with how cold it was, but he seemed to believe what he had said… kinda.

After getting a “Right” out of the other, who seemed to be pleasured by the scene, “That sadistic little…!” Asuto thought to himself; Nosaka decided it was time to start walking and between the two promptly dragged him off to the nearest park.

“Why is this my life… Why them, why them!?” Inamori started to question his life choices, and questionable choice on crushes, when he saw an ice cream parlor, as to which his mood changed completely. He was now a five year old with nothing to worry about.

“Ice cream! Ice cream~. Ice. Cream.” Asuto chanted to himself, starting to walk there, stopping the other two, who wondered where exactly the smallest one was taking them.

When they saw themselves in front of the ice cream parlor, Haizaki sighed defeated while Nosaka just chuckled and went with it; the sweet treat didn’t sound so bad after all.

Asuto was happily licking his sugary infusion while Nosaka and Haizaki, the former at his right and the latter to his left side, talked between them.

“Wouldn’t it be better if one of them walked where I am…?” He wondered, but he didn’t really want to catch their attention and remind them of the questioning they had done earlier that day… night? So he just kept quiet until they sat on a bench at the park, but he exchanged places with Nosaka this time.

There, he once again noticed the strange looks they had been getting from mainly girls. “What is going on…?” Asuto was confused, but of course it didn’t occur to him that the reason they were looking at them was the same of why he had been so nervous about that day. Chocolates.

He tried to ignore it, but he was pretty sure the other two also knew they were being watched, which is why it was so surprising when some of them finally approached.

“Um…” A girl started. “Are you by any chance…” Another continued. “Nosaka Yuuma/Haizaki Ryouhei?” Weirdly, the ones who had said this were in sync.

“Ah, yes. That we are, why would it be?” Nosaka offered them a small smile, hoping to be polite.

Which was not… the best thing to do, as the now crowd that had formed around them erupted into “Kya!”s, gasps and “It’s really them! The Emperor of Tactics and the Devil of the Field!” 

Of course, Asuto wasn’t that surprised, he already knew his two crushes friends were really popular. It did worry him though, as one of the girls offered a cute box of chocolate to Haizaki who couldn’t do more than accept it with a rude thanks, in the stupor he was. More shrieks ensued.

Inamori decided that it was now or never, and after whispering to the other two that he was going to throw out the garbage he ran away, trying to not let the despairing faces of his two friends make him turn back. They were swallowed up by the mass of girls, and boys too! 

“I’m sure glad that I didn’t get caught up in that. Poor them.” He laughed devilishly while he heard the sounds of clothes ripping.

Soon enough he was in Ms. Yone’s house, which brought a whole other level of despairing with it.

He didn’t know why or how, but she had changed the chocolates from their original red and blue boxes to heart shaped ones, with a sticker of him winking; where did they even sell that!? And also a cheesy romantic line with more hearts around it.

“W-Why…? How…? What…?” Asuto felt like he would die before giving those to either of his friends.  
“Oh, don’t thank me too much. I just thought that this would be a nice little touch!” The lady smiled innocently.   
“T-That’s not it at all! It’s not that I’m not thankful, but how am I supposed to pass these as ‘friend chocolates’ now!?” Asuto so wished the Earth would swallow him whole.  
“Oh, whatever could you be talking about? These were never supposed to be friendly, not even from the start, am I right?” Now she had that all-knowing glint in her eyes too.

“Am I really that obvious!?” He thought to himself. 

“Yes, you are. I mean, almost everyone knows. The only ones who don’t are the people in question. Which is a little weird considering they are both quite sharp…” She trailed off, in her mind a sudden thought struck her. What if they did but pretended not to? Everything now made a lot of sense.

It was confirmed, Asuto was a lovestruck mess and not only the team knew, but practically everyone else too! Now how could he erase people’s memories?

“Don’t be silly, you. Yes, you said that out loud. Everything’s going to be fine! You’re gonna take these chocolates, walk up to them and give it. For its true purpose, you hear me? Nothing about friendship or things like that, I didn’t spend so much time for you to back out now, okay?” Was this supposed to be encouragement or a reprimand?

“I… but those two are so popular, they’ll definitely reject me! There was a swarm of people surrounding them before I came here! The girls giving them chocolate is actually the reason I could come here alone! They must be sick of it, or worse, they could hate me for leaving them like that!” Was he panicking? Yes, indeed he was. 

Would that happen? Of course not, those two loved him too much to hate him or hurt him like that. Which is what Ms. Kazeaki told him… with other words.

“Now go! I don’t want to hear you didn’t give it to them after all this hard work! Don’t let it go to waste, okay?” She smiled one last time before practically kicking him out before he could even get out the “Wait!” he had been about to say.

Asuto sighed before putting the heart shaped boxes in his backpack, deciding to wait go look for his friends if only to avoid the thoughts of rejection or giving something so cheesy to them. And he really wanted to see their state after their fans were done, that was really funny.

He first went to the park, only to find them gone. There were no pieces of clothes left behind either… 

“Dang, now where do I go? They could be anywhere.” He wondered aloud.   
Just then his phone got a notification, a shout of “PENGUIN THE-!” could be heard. Haizaki, just his luck.

“You traitor, leaving us behind like that. Have you no shame?” It said. He laughed before locking it, that didn’t help his situation at all though.  
Next there was another ping and “King’s Lance!” could be heard this time.  
Nosaka…? A photo was attached, his notification said.

In the picture there was Asuto, looking at his phone. But where…? He tried to figure out the angle so he’d know where to look, and when he finally got it there was a sudden flash besides a shop.

Another message showed up, “Got you~” It said. In the picture his shocked face could be seen.

Jeez, so they were there. He walked over to where he had seen the flash before and was quite surprised, to say the least, to find them with their clothes ragged and they looked overall flushed. 

“Wow, you look as if…” He tried to contain his laughter, but it was impossible with the looks they both were giving him. “As if you had just been ravaged by fans! Pffft, this is too funny-” He had half a mind to take out his phone to take pictures of them.

“Yeah, yeah. So funny.” Haizaki looked about ready to kick him, but was barely containing himself. “It wasn’t that funny when you left us there, alone against a whole crowd.”

“Hey, I was just trying to survive!” He responded. “Not like they really noticed me anyway, they seemed entirely focused on you two.” Now he really looked at them both, and damn. He should thank those people sometime for gifting him this view.

“That’s not true, I did hear some of them calling your name. But you were so keen on leaving us that they turned to us instead, and now we have this huge amount of chocolates and ragged clothes. How nice.” Nosaka replied, moving his body in a way that made Asuto’s knees weak, he felt as if this was heaven on Earth. The redhead looked really good when trying to rearrange his hair.

He slapped himself internally to focus on what he was saying instead of… you know.   
“Oh… I’m sorry?” Inamori tried, but the other two still looked at him with deadpan expressions. “A-Anyway, how did you manage to lose them?” 

Haizaki “tch”ed before looking at the pile of chocolates beside them. “We had to outrun them. While running with these boxes. It was beautiful.” Wow, he really wasn’t holding it back with the sarcasm, huh.

“I mean, it couldn’t have been that bad, right?” As the other two gestured to their clothes Asuto quickly retracted himself. “At least… you had girls running for you?” 

Nosaka sighed before looking over the corner. After making sure there was no one there, he picked up his boxes before walking outside.

“If some of them… hadn’t tried to assault us like this, then it would have probably been better. There were quite a few girls who were polite enough to offer these to us and then leave.” He commented. “Still, it’s the first time I’ve had so many people give me chocolates. I don’t think I’ll be able to eat them all.” 

Asuto laughed nervously, shoot! Would they even want his sweets? They had so many now after all. 

“Yeah. But I really want to change before doing anything else.” Haizaki added, after getting an affirmative from the other victim, they started making way to the Inazuma building, it was also lunch time after all.

After lazing around for a while, Asuto took out the chocolate boxes. If it came to it, would he be able to give these? He didn’t do them for nothing after all but… his dreams invaded his mind again, what if they rejected it? Rejected him? What if they wanted to stop being friends? 

He shook his head fiercely, he wasn’t going to get down in the dumps just by some dumb what ifs! Also he didn’t even want to imagine what Ms. Yone would do if he chickened out. Asuto shivered.

So, he once again picked up the boxes and got them in his backpack. Now he had to find those two. 

He set off on his quest with determination. He actually found Nosaka not too much later talking with Nishikage. He made some hand signs he hoped the other caught, he didn’t really want to interrupt their conversation. 

Luckily, he did see him, and after saying something to the goalkeeper he walked over.  
“Inamori? What is it?” 

“Um, sorry for interrupting you.” He laughed for a bit before getting to the point. “Do you think you could come with me in… an hour?”

“Sure, but why?” He had a calculating look in his eyes.  
“I’ll explain there, okay? Okay! See you in an hour!” And promptly ran off, a smile on his face.

“That didn’t go too bad, right?” Now he was talking to himself while looking for his other friend.

He already had found one of the two, how hard could it be to find him?  
Famous last words. 

Almost fifty minutes had passed since he met with Nosaka and he still hadn’t been able to find that gray haired bear lover. He was getting antsy, what if he didn’t find him? He had looked everywhere for him but with no results. He even was in the forest now!

An idea suddenly struck him and he wanted to facepalm so hard for not thinking that before. 

He called Haizaki. Some rings could be heard near him, it couldn’t be… could it?  
Soon enough, the other picked it up. 

“What do you want?” He heard not only from the phone, but also somewhere around him. 

Finally! Jeez, what was he even doing in the forest?

“Haizaki! I finally found you!” Asuto exclaimed once he saw the other, ignoring the “Hello?” coming from the phone.

“Finally found me? What are you talking about? Hey, what are you doing!?” Haizaki exclaimed when Asuto grabbed his hand and started walking off to who knows where.  
“You do not want to know how long I was looking you for! Now please come with me, Nosaka and us are going somewhere.” 

“Sure…? But why are you dragging me? You could have asked, you know.” The forward didn’t try to get his hand out, but he didn’t appreciate being dragged. Inamori didn’t notice.

“Oh, I would have if you know. Had found you before? And not in the forest?” Was Asuto using sarcasm now? Yes, he was. That seemed to keep Haizaki quiet, who took a thoughtful stance.

Now, if only Nosaka was waiting at the main door where he supposed he would, as he hadn’t told the other where to meet, everything could go smoothly.

The redhead indeed was there, and Asuto smiled happily, not really noticing the look the other directed at his and Haizaki’s joined hands, or the latter’s blush.

“Okay, since the three of us are here, let’s go!” The midfielder finally let go of the other’s hand, to his disappointment and Nosaka’s chuckles.

“Where are we even going? No way in hell am I going back to that park.” Haizaki asked, crossing his arms. Asuto started laughing and the other two frowned, one worried and one annoyed.

“Of course not, haha, but that sure would be funny.” The smallest shook his head while still laughing, at least that seemed to relax them, as they sighed in relief.

“Still, where are we going?” Nosaka persisted.

“You’ll have to wait and see! For now just follow me!” He started to walk backwards, facing the two taller boys.

“Sure… but don’t forget we still have a pending conversation.” The redhead warned, to Asuto’s dismay.

“You wanted to take us… to the river? What?” Haizaki took the scenery in as Asuto sat in front of the flowing water, soon followed by the other two who sat at his sides.

“Yep! It’s really pretty, isn’t it?” He smiled softly while playing with the grass.

“It sure is.” Nosaka answered. “But that still doesn’t answer the obvious elephant in the room.” At seeing how the midfielder flinched and stopped smiling, he sighed. “Well, then what about last night’s conversation in the bathroom? We’ve actually wanted to ask this all day, but you know what happened…” They both shivered, which brought a small smile to Asuto’s face.

“It’s now or never, Asuto!” He cheered himself on internally.

“Well, actually… that’s part of the reason of why I asked you guys to come here.” He started but was quickly interrupted when Haizaki protested with a “But you didn’t ask me!” as to which he countered with “I spent almost an hour looking for you, of course I wasn’t going to let my effort go to waste.”

“Anyway! There’s something I’ve um…” His heartbeat picked up the pace and he could feel his blood going to his cheeks. “Meaning to give you two…” He fumbled with his backpack a bit before finally getting out two boxes, which he somehow managed to hide quick enough so that the other two only saw their colors.

“I… I hope you don’t think this is gross or anything… and you have so many of these already, I don’t even know if you’ll like them.” Now it seemed more like he was talking to himself than them.

Haizaki grabbed him by the shoulders before asking him what he meant by all of that, he didn’t understand a thing of what he was saying. Nosaka had more of an idea.

“Come on Inamori, what is it…? I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t judge you even if it was the weirdest thing in the world, right Haizaki?” Was that a murderous grin Asuto was seeing? But then he blinked and it was gone.

“Yeah. So come on and spill it out already!” The other urged, with his hands shaking his shoulders.

“Well, I made these for you two… with help! To… in a way show you guys how much I deeply appreciate our friendship, how we always care so much and look out for each other and my wish to let our relationship grow even more… I really can’t believe that when we met, you hated each other… I-In any case, please take this…!” And so he held out the, quite embarrassing if you asked Asuto, heart shaped boxes to their respective owners. As an afterthought he said “Please don’t ask about the boxes.”

After an uncomfortable moment where neither of them moved, Asuto’s look went from nervous to visibly crestfallen. He didn’t know whether to leave the boxes in their hands or put them back and leave.

He started to retract his hands when one of the two reacted, snatching his wrist before taking the box, inspecting it curiously.

“Say, what is this Inamori? Are these what you had been making all those nights?” Nosaka was the one who asked while Haizaki took the blue box from Asuto’s other hand.

The other could only give a nod, his nervousness holding his tongue. He actually had so much to tell them but didn’t seem to be able to! It was so frustrating. Instead, he tried gesturing for them to open the boxes, his cheeks growing red again when reading the cheesy messages written on top, amazingly, he didn’t get any comments for that… yet.

Whatever the other two had expected to encounter when opening the boxes was definitely not chocolates, as their surprised faces spoke for themselves. Still, Asuto considered he had done a good job in shaping them like soccer balls, with white chocolate to help in the design. That had actually been one of the hardest parts… and the result was mostly thanks to Ms. Yone’s intervention.

He noticed they looked at each other before one of them spoke.

“Soccer balls as chocolates? Why am I not surprised.” Haizaki laughed at his own comment while Nosaka nodded, indeed, it wasn’t Asuto if it wasn’t about soccer.

“But why chocolates? Not like I’m ungrateful, but you really didn’t have to, Inamori.” Nosaka looked at him in half worry and half thankfulness. 

“I-I wanted to! A-And like I said before, it’s my way of saying thanks for being my friends for all this time and how much I love you two! Although they’d never expect the kind of love I’m talking about…” The last part was mumbled low enough that the other two couldn’t actually hear what he said but not quite as to not hear nothing.

“What was that?” Haizaki questioned.  
“What, chocolates as thanks?” He tilted his head in wonder, not knowing that they had heard him mumble.  
“No, no. After that.” The forward made a sign as to continue.  
“… How much I love you two…?” Saying that again made Asuto realize how bad it had sounded and blood abruptly rushed to his cheeks, the other only shook his head while Nosaka tried one of the chocolates, amazed by the taste. He wasn’t really expecting for them to actually… be this good. So that little one was good at him huh. That would be a question for later, he decided.

“When you mumbled something, Inamori. I think that’s the part he’s talking about.” The redhead intervened, and as Haizaki nodded, the blackette paled. What could he say now?

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Asuto could swear he was sweating bullets, he finally got an idea. “Oh! I was just really nervous cause at first I didn’t know if you’d accept or like them!”

The other two sighed in response, how could he ever think that? Of course they wouldn’t turn down anything the cheerful midfielder gave to them, he was really kind like that after all. And no, their opinion was not at all biased by the flowers or stars they saw around the other when he smiled, looked cutely at them or just… being him.  
Their opinion had nothing to do with the feelings they had for him. 

“These are actually really good. I don’t know why you would think we wouldn’t like them.” The redhead commented, plopping another one of the soccer balls in his mouth.

“Or not accept them, that’s just stupid. You said it yourself, we are your friends. And why would we turn it down if it’s a free gift?” Haizaki smirked but it soon faltered when Nosaka jabbed his side, he protested of course.

“But… I mean… Youalreadygotsomanyearliertoday!” Asuto said in one breath, actually more than a little embarrassed because of his insecurity. “Or… maybe you would think it’s grosssinceI’maguy?” He seriously couldn’t speak normally all thanks to his nervousness. He scratched his cheek and laughed in desperation when the other two looked at him with these dead look. 

It didn’t last long though, as Nosaka sighed before sticking to Asuto’s left side and embracing him with one arm. 

“You silly… I would prefer one of my greatest friends,” At this, Asuto felt an imaginary jab to his heart, oh the friendzone… “present before someone else’s everyday. Not like I wouldn’t like it, but you’re so much precious than a random person because I know you, and you know me. So it holds much more meaning to me that way.” Nosaka rubbed the other’s back with his other hand in hopes to sooth him.

“You know, you could have probably given him trash and he still would have loved it.” When had Haizaki come so close? He was practically hugging him too! Oh god, he was going to have a heart failure because of them both. Dang him and his crushes.

He laughed at this, though he was blushing, before swatting the gray-haired’s arm.   
“You can’t be seriou-” Inamori was interrupted when the redhead squeezed the shoulder his hand was grabbing before answering with the most sincere smile… okay, there was mischief in there too. “He’s right you know.” Which just threw Asuto off and suddenly he was glad no one but those two would be able to see how red he could get.

“W-What do you mean with that?” Asuto’s face was between amused and worried.  
“It means…” Now he was getting closer! What was going on!? “Dear Asuto, that if it’s you, then anything and everything you give to me would still be precious.” And he ended up kissing his cheek, he really felt like he had to repeat his previous thought. Just what was going on!? His face was now impossibly red and his mouth was gape open like a fish’s would. Not only he had finally called him by his name after so many years, but he kissed him! 

His cheek, but still. He kissed him! Was he hallucinating?

Asuto turned to Haizaki and pointed at Nosaka in an accusatory way, as to which the other cracked one of his very rare smiles. And as if they had planned something like this, he also got closer than before, whispering in his ear “I told you so.” Which was actually really weird, but pleasant, mind you. Only to right after kiss his other cheek! 

Were they teasing him!?

“Aw Asuto, you don’t have to be uncomfortable. Wasn’t this what you wanted?” Of course, that Haizaki smirked while effectively sending another jab to Asuto’s heart. Oh, he was going to die. Hearing them both say his name after so long was exciting.

Only after a few seconds did Inamori finally process what he had said.   
“What I wanted? What?” He was really confused. Had they somehow read his mind?

“… The boxes? Chocolates on Valentine’s? Those cheesy phrases? Or did we somehow misunderstand the whole situation?” Nosaka’s tone was concerned and now Asuto wanted to die but from embarrassment, he had practically ended up confessing his feelings when he didn’t even know if he wanted to yet! Dang those boxes. What was he going to do? They’d definitely reject him, he was just a friend after all.

“I…” He hid his face with his hands, oh how his cheeks were burning. But that didn’t last long as the youngest took them apart, holding Asuto’s hands in his.

“So, did we?” Wasn’t Haizaki being unusually soft?

“No! I mean… no, no…” He shook his head and then looked at his hands intertwined with the other’s in embarrassment. “But how did you even know…?” 

“We weren’t really sure about it, as you have always seemed so comfortable, kind and caring with everyone. But… as we spent more time together, I started to notice some other things, special things that you only did with us, and after that rather unfortunate accident… Do you remember? I think that’s when I noticed, your feelings and also mine.” Nosaka started to explain, hoping to not make Asuto clam up his feelings now that the truth was out.

“While that’s true, I always knew. I mean, about my feelings. It wouldn’t be until much, much later that I would notice yours, just like everyone supposedly did so easily.” He remarked with little bite.

“But… But I thought that you two were together?” And at this, Asuto took his hand away from the other’s and managed to get free from Nosaka’s grasp.

“We are.” Was the simple response from Haizaki.

“Yes, that’s true. But it’s also true that our feelings for us is what brought us together in the first place, then from there we started to know each other better and now… here we are. We didn’t want to make anything official until we were sure what your feelings for us were.” Instead, Nosaka broke the matter into an understandable explanation.

As an afterthought he added, “We also wanted you to confess your feelings.”  
“I see… but why? You two could have been happy together… not that I am, I still feel like I’m dreaming, I had wished for this to happen many times before, but… why didn’t you just let me go?” He played with a rock that was near his feet.

“Are you serious? Do you even know how long we have been trying for you to-” Haizaki was this close to exploding, but Nosaka stopped him just before he could.

“Of course not, Asuto. You are the reason we met on other terms, and also the reason we are friends. You’ve helped me when I was at my darkest moments, and cheered me on when I was at my brightest. You are always there, worrying for us, caring for us. Come on, you even spent precious hours where you could have been sleeping to make us these delicious chocolates. If you knew such an amazing person liked you back, would you let them go? I’d definitely not, and that’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re here.” Asuto wanted to cry, was this real? He definitely never felt so awesome as Nosaka made it out to be… he was just being him; still, he appreciated every single word and they made his heart sing.

Haizaki only sighed while nodding, as if agreeing with what the redhead had said. It seemed like he was back under control again. He definitely wasn’t much for heartwarming words, but only for Asuto, he tried.  
“You see… I’ve always been such a volatile person. You know what happened with Akane and all that. But you, you were the light that saved me when I was distraught, you were the one who made me see something other than vengeance and changed me for the better. It’s because of you… that I am who I am now. And all those other cheesy lines Nosaka loves to spew.” Well, that last part was anti-climatic, but Haizaki’s patience had limits after all.

Before the redhead could come up with a snappy remark though, Asuto embraced them both while saying “You guys…!” and promptly started to cry. To Haizaki’s desperation and Nosaka’s amusement. 

“Nosaka… Haizaki…!” Asuto couldn’t stop his tears of happiness.  
“You idiot, call us by our names already!” Haizaki said fondly.  
“Okay, Ryouhei… Yuuma… Ugh, why did you make me cry?” He said while trying to wipe his tears, at seeing that it didn’t work, he pressed himself against Yuuma’s chest, of course taking advantages, and cried. Nosaka only patted the other’s back in response.

“It isn’t our fault, emotional mess!” Haizaki smirked when Asuto lifted his head from the other’s chest and glared weakly at him.

“Of course it is, you… you dummies!” And he mock punched Haizaki’s arm.  
Nosaka muttered a “So cute…” while Ryouhei acted as if he was dying from that little hit.

After an hour full of hugs, Asuto’s tears and laughs, they decided to head back to the building.  
“So what even made you think of giving us chocolates?” Yuuma asked.  
“Well, to be honest I heard some people talking about it at first, but I got the idea when I saw a bug pamphlet when we went to the amusement park.” Asuto explained.  
“Oh, on our date?” Ryouhei teased.  
“D-D-Date!? I was just a friend back then!” The other responded.  
“Oh, so you aren’t now?”   
“No. No? Or am I? Am I still just a friend? Have I still been in the friendzone this whole time?”   
“Ah, I broke him.”   
“Jeez, Ryouhei. Please don’t do that. Asuto, look at me.” Nosaka took Inamori by the shoulders. And kissed him. “You were never just a friend, you know? Did I make it clear or are you still confused?” He even had the dare to wink at him while Ryouhei complained how it wasn’t fair that he got the first kiss and Asuto just looked at him with his eyes wide open, blushing heavily. 

“I-I think I understand now, thanks.” He managed to get out.  
“Anyway, why give us heart-shaped boxes if you weren’t sure about confessing or not?” Haizaki made him divert his attention.  
“Well, it’s funny. They were supposed to be normal boxes at first… with no cheesy lines nor stickers of me winking, but… my little assistant did it, saying it’d help me. And how they didn’t work this hard for me to chicken out now… Something like that.” He shivered, being reminded of Ms. Yone’s dangerous smile.  
“Ah… that sounds like fun.” Yuuma commented.  
“It wasn’t. You wouldn’t want to know.” Asuto shivered again.  
“Well then… what about you?”  
“Me? What?”  
“Yeah, how about you teach us how to make those chocolates? They were delicious.”  
“They were very good” Haizaki admitted, staying quiet for the most part of the conversation.  
“Must be the genes… my mother used to make them and they were exquisite.” He said with more than some nostalgia. After a beat, he quickly added, “I mean, I’m nowhere near her level yet, and it was mostly thanks to my helper!”   
“Still, we would like to learn with you, right Ryouhei?”  
“Tch. Stop talking in plural you… but maybe it won’t be so bad… if Asuto’s there.” The other huffed at the end of his sentence, they were now just outside the big entrance doors.

He laughed at his friends; no, scratch that, boyfriends antics. So everything turned out well in the end huh?

But wait. “I don’t think you two should be that enthusiastic about chocolate. You have tons of it after all, right? And clothes ragged, pride shredded…” He laughed mischievously while the other two shivered and then groaned.

“Although, we could always share with Asuto here. Am I right, Ryouhei?” Yuuma smirked.  
“Nuh-uh! Don’t think so!” And after mocking them by sticking his tongue out, he started to run away, entering the building. The other two chased after him.

They didn’t know, but they were being watched by most of their team while money was being passed around, Hiura and Mansaku looked specially proud. 

A thought was passing through all of their minds though.

“Finally.”


End file.
